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On-Site SEO Tip: Using Keywords in URLs

The EverEffect Search Engine Optimization Approach is holistic when it comes to On-Site SEO. This means it’s our job to optimize your entire website for SEO. There are many factors that go into a properly optimized website for SEO. When all factors have been incorporated and new content is added on a regular basis; you will have a fine tuned machine of a website that ranks well within the search engines.

One On-Site SEO tip that is often overlooked when developing a new website is optimizing URLs with your SEO target keywords. Below are the reasons why incorporating keywords in URLs can have an impact on your website within the search engines.

Logical to Visitors
Using keywords in your file names makes sense because you are essentially describing what is on the page. As a visitor, I would expect that your web site’s blue paint be located at domain.com/paint/blue-high-gloss-paint.html.

Logical to Google
When a visitor looks at your URL, they understand that the page is probably talking about that service or product. Search Engines do the same thing. Working in tandem with other on-site SEO factors, search engines may give extra weight to having keywords in your URL.

SERP Benefits
While using keywords in your URLs is not one of the top ranking factors, it is one of the top eyeball-grabbers when working with Browser Titles, META Descriptions, and URLs witin the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Note in the above image that the URL is bolded in the SERPs which is quite attractive to the eye and thus increase click throughs.

As with all things, using a keyword in your URL is an ideal SEO best practice. A recent client was limited to the number of On-Site SEO factors they would be able to incorporate into their current website. Limited by their content management system and the cost of making some of the changes. If this is similar to your case, then factor in keyword rich URLs in the next version of your website.